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Thursday, October 3, 2013

NVSQVAM: "A MUST-READ NOVEL" (So read it. Or I'm coming to everyone's house to kill them, I've had it, I swear on a stack of Vanity Fairs [the book, not the magazine, shithead].)

(Sigh) Obviously, I'm a little tense this week. But I'm also extremely chuffed and grateful for this kind review by Matt Forney, the twentysomething who fooled us all by posing as a gruff old pervert on In Mala Fide:

Thanks, Matt!

Everyone else: hey! This thing I made with my brain might amuse you. Don't turn down amusing things, life's dreary enough as it is. If you're leery and you want a sample chapter before releasing the toiled-over coin, shoot me a line (asterzingerz@gmail.com). In fact, I think I'll start posting a few samples out of NVSQVAM here soon; its publisher, Chip Smith of Nine-Banded Books, has, to the surprise of no one except the trolls, graciously given his blessing.

To those of you who only read nonfiction (a surprising number of my friends, in fact, subscribe to the "truth is stranger than fiction" truism disappointingly religiously), Forney says this:

"Man does not live by bread alone, and you need to read fiction and literary nonfiction in order to become a well-rounded individual.

I’d rather die than live in a world where I can’t read books like NVSQVAM (Nowhere)."

I'd probably rather just die, myself, but I enjoy his point.

6 comments:

  1. I finished NVSQVAM a couple of weeks ago, Ann. Excellent! I thought at one point I had more or less figured out the ending, but you really surprised me!

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  2. This post certainly applies to me, I SUCK at reading fiction. Other than Lovecraft there is precious little I've been able to get into. There must be a huge difference in brain wiring between those who mainly read fiction, rather than non.

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  3. Thank you, Unknown! Bill... if you can get into Lovecraft, the suggestion that zips to the top of my head right now is Ligotti.

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  4. Thanks to an observation from my fellow Corkman Frank O'Connor, I know now why novel reading is becoming more of a chore for me:

    "To me, the novel is so human, the only thing I’m interested in—I can’t imagine anything better in the world than people."

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    1. I understand that, certainly, in the abstract, but ideally novels aren't about people, or at least not the novels I like. They're about things that closely resemble people—in fact our contacts with them are accepted by the brain as a social experience—but which are far more consistently entertaining and instructive. A fulfillment of the needs of a social creature with some of the bullshit scraped off. I need them.

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  5. Did you know that he planned to feature/review your book on his blog?

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Anyone can post, but please, if you want to be anonymous, come up with an amusing handle so we can tell you apart. Thanks!